the archives

the Polish EU presidency

means that these months are jammed with cultural events. The Warsaw Film Festival is usually in October, as is Wroclaw’s DIALOG theater festival–but KRT (Krakow Theatrical Reminiscences) has been moved to the fall as well, to coincide with the EU presidency term. (It’s usually in the spring.)

There’s no way I’ll be able to see all of this, but I am planning a trip to Wroclaw around October 10th to catch one of the Polish performances in DIALOG, a version of Brothers Karamazov, and also to see Teatr Zar’s latest show. I also expect to see lots of Warsaw Film Festival events, since it’s right here in my home town. But I don’t think I’m going to make it to KRT. Krakow will have to wait for the Joseph Conrad festival in November.

So many festivals–I haven’t even mentioned the European Congress of Culture in Wroclaw, which was days before I was supposed to be back in Wroclaw for the Fulbright orientation, and which was physically un-schedulable for me.

Here in Warsaw, this feels like a Monday morning. I’ve never seen the tram and subway cars as crowded as they were today. Classes start this week at the University of Warsaw, which may be part of it.

This morning, I’m at a cafe on ul. Marszalkowska. I’m working on an article about the theater festival in Legnica that I saw last week–I conducted an interview in Polish and am working with a translator to get some quotes from it. This is simple enough. Translating the entire interview, however, which I still want to do, will be a much more time-consuming process.

Also this week, my own Polish classes start at U of W’s POLONICUM. I have to head over there to buy books today. I’m looking forward to it; taking Polish classes during the Fulbright orientation was really wonderful, and helped me to feel that I was making progress with the language instead of forgetting everything I’d learned in Pittsburgh.